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| Faculty Newsletter Archive |
Faculty News - Winter 2006Irons Gives Presentation at the Eastern Sociological Society in BostonFebruary 28, 2006Assistant Professor of Sociology Jennifer Irons gave a presentation titled "Memory, Race, and Place: A Sociological Analysis of the Re-visitation of Civil Rights Era Violence" at the Eastern Sociological Society meetings in Boston during the last week of February. More ... Jones Lectures at the Helsinki Center for Economic ResearchFebruary 23, 2006Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics Derek Jones recently gave two talks at the Helsinki Center for Economic Research in Helsinki, Finland. On Feb. 2, he presented a paper he wrote with Panu Kalmi and Antti Kauhanen, "Human Resource Management and Performance in Retail Trade: Evidence From an Econometric Case Study," at the annual meeting of the Finnish Society for Economic Research. On Feb. 22, Jones presented a paper titled "The Productive Efficiency of Italian Producer Cooperatives: Evidence from Conventional and Cooperative Firms" at a seminar titled "Labour and Public Economics." Seager is Author of New Book, Encountering the DharmaFebruary 20, 2006Hamilton College Associate Professor of Religious Studies Richard Hughes Seager is the author of a new book, Encountering the Dharma (University of California Press), which examines Japan's Soka Gakkai Buddhism movement. Seager's research for a previous book, Buddhism in America, piqued his interest in Daisaku Ikeda, the organization's longtime president, and the history of modern Japan. More ... Elgren Gives Invited Presentation at AAAS MeetingFebruary 20, 2006Associate Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren gave an invited presentation titled "Undergraduate Research Experiences: Synergies Between Teaching and Research" at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in St. Louis, on Feb. 18. Elgren is the past-president of the Council on Undergraduate Research. Cheng Li Interviewed on BBC's "The World Today"February 16, 2006Cheng Li, the William R. Kenan Professor of Government, participated in a live interview on the BBC's "The World Today" program on February 14. Li discussed the Chinese government's control over media and the growing demand for freedom of the press in the country. More ... Rajan Co-Edits Book About Immigration Patterns for South AsiansFebruary 15, 2006Gita Rajan, the Jane Watson Irwin Visiting Associate Professor of Women's Studies, is co-editor of a new book, New Cosmopolitanisms: South Asians in the U.S. (Stanford University Press). The book, also co-edited by Shailja Sharma, associate professor of English at DePaul University, offers an in-depth look at the ways in which globalization, technology, and travel have altered traditional patterns of immigration for South Asians who live and work in the United States and theorizes how their popular cultural practices and aesthetic desires are changing. More ... "Doc" Woods Performed Annual Black History Month Show on Feb. 15February 13, 2006Associate Professor of Music Michael "Doc" Woods performed his annual show to honor Black History Month on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at the Syracuse Suds Factory in Armory Square. Woods, jazz composer and bassist, was joined by Jeff Stockham on trumpet, Bob Cesari on sax, Joe Colombo on trombone, Tom Witowski on piano and Rick Compton on drums. The show featured original Woods songs "Steak Sauce" and "One Moment in Time," as well as his work based on traditional progressions. "I'm one of the very few African-Americans in this area who's writing original music," said Woods. "So to me, [the Black History Month show] is very important." Gold Keynote Speaker at Australasian Classical Society MeetingFebruary 11, 2006Barbara Gold was the invited keynote speaker at the 27th Australasian Classical Society meeting in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. She gave the evening keynote address, which was the Australian Humanities Academy Trendall Lecture for 2006, on "Inhuman She-Wolves and Unhelpful Mothers in Propertius' Elegies." She also gave another paper at a regular session of the conference on "Rhetoric and Auctoritas in Juvenal's Satires," and she presided over another session (at which Carl Rubino gave a paper on "Horace, Carmina 4.1: The Long Goodbye"). While there she also (as editor of a classical journal) attended a meeting of the classical journal editors from Australia and New Zealand. Cryer Performs 99 Questions at U Mass Amherst and HerkimerFebruary 7, 2006Associate Professor of Theatre Mark Cryer has performed his one-man show, "99 Questions You've Always Wanted to Ask an African American But Were Too Afraid to Ask," at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Herkimer County Community College and Indiana University of Pennsylvania during February. Cryer worked on the play with a student, Jared Johnson '02, who conducted interviews of people in New York City to arrive at the questions. Glenn Published in Studies in American Political DevelopmentFebruary 6, 2006Brian J. Glenn, visiting assistant professor of government, recently published an article in the latest issue of Studies in American Political Development assessing the contributions of Louis Hartz's book, "The Liberal Tradition in America," published 50 years ago. Glenn argues that if the book is a classic, it is because several important lines of research stemmed from the book, and continue to do so. Balkan Participates in Sixth World Social ForumFebruary 6, 2006Lecturer in Economics and Women's Studies Nesecan Balkan participated in the Sixth World Social Forum in Caracas from January 24-29. Balkan organized a workshop along with colleagues from the Union of Radical Political Economists (URPE) titled "Progressive Economic Organizing in the U.S" and presented a paper about students' anti-sweatshop and other labor-related activism. The paper focused specifically on the activities of the United Students against Sweatshops which is an umbrella organization for more than 200 college groups involved with economic issues. More ... Comparative Literature Class Explores Biology Through Interdisciplinary CourseFebruary 3, 2006Visiting Instructor of Comparative Literature Janelle Schwartz recently brought her Comparative Literature 311 "Fields of Visibility: Science and Literature in European Romantic Thought" class to Professor of Biology Pat Reynolds' lab to look at worms through microscopes and put their theoretical knowledge of worm generation and regeneration into practice. The class is an interdisciplinary course that attracts students interested in the sciences and the humanities. More ... Rabinowitz Presents Brown Bag Talk on the Medea ProjectFebruary 2, 2006Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, the Margaret Bundy Scott Professor of Comparative Literature, presented her paper, "Liberating Medea: Political Theater," in a Faculty Brown Bag talk on February 1. In her talk, Rabinowitz discussed the political implications of the Medea Project, a prison-education initiative that encourages female prisoners to use Euripides' Medea to develop a sense of personal agency. More ... Elgren Delivers Invited Talk at Gordon Research ConferenceFebruary 1, 2006Associate Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren delivered an invited talk at the Protein Derived Radicals, Cofactors, and Quinones Gordon Research Conference in Ventura, Calif. in January. The talk was titled "Sol-Gel Encapsulation of Enzymes: Mechanistic and Spectroscopic Studies." More ... Tejerina-Canal Publishes Article in Spanish Literary ReviewJanuary 27, 2006Professor of Hispanic Studies Santiago Tejerina-Canal published an article "La 'super/ficción' de G.T.B. (y La saga/fuga de J.B.)" in La tabla redonda: Anuario de estudios torrentinos nº 3, 2005, pp. 83-104, a yearly Spanish literary review entirely devoted to Spanish novelist Gonzalo Torrente Ballester. More ... Isserman's Book Listed in the National ReviewJanuary 26, 2006William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History Maurice Isserman's book, "America Divided: The Civil War of the Sixties," is listed in a Jan. 24 article in the National Review titled, "A Right Man's Left-Hand Library," written by editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg. The article's focus is to recommend the best books on the history of liberalism in America from the writer's perspective. More ... Boutin Gives Presentation at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San AntonioJanuary 26, 2006Associate Professor of Mathematics Debra Boutin gave an invited presentation at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Antonio this January. Her talk "Connecting the isometric embedding dimension and the determining number of a graph," outlined two distinct areas of her research and introduced a surprising link between them. Another area of Boutin's research was presented in a separate talk by coauthor Ellen Gethner, a computer scientist from the University of Colorado at Denver. Gethner presented highlights of their ongoing work, including a new infinite family of minimal 9-chromatic thickness 2 graphs and a new, easily constructed, family of graphs in which every thickness 2 graph is contained as a subgraph. Adair Lectures at University of WashingtonJanuary 25, 2006Vivyan Adair, the Elihu Root Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women's Studies and director of the ACCESS Project, gave a lecture in conjunction with the photo exhibit "The Missing Story of Ourselves" at the University of Washington, Seattle, on Jan. 19. The exhibit is on display at Odegaard Undergraduate Library through Jan. 30. It includes museum quality, framed color photographs and narratives created by women and men who either are, or were, poor parents and students changing their lives through the pathway of higher education in the United States. More ... Jones Co-Authors Paper on Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation in BulgariaJanuary 24, 2006Derek Jones, Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics, co-authored a paper with Mark Klinedinst titled "Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation in Bulgaria after Mass Privatization: Evidence from New Panel Data," recently published in the book Participation in the Age of Globalization and Information, which is volume 9 in the series Advances in the Economics Analysis of Participatory and Labor Managed Firms, edited by Panu Kalmi and Mark Klinedinst, and published by Elsevier. This analysis of both private and state-owned Bulgarian firms reviews the potential impact of ownership and age of the firm on diverse issues concerning corporate governance and executive compensation from 1997 through 2001. LeMasurier Gives Paper at American Mathematical Society MeetingJanuary 20, 2006Assistant Professor of Mathematics Michelle LeMasurier was invited to present a paper she wrote with two colleagues, "Closed Relations and Equivalence Classes of Quasicontinuous Functions," at the national meetings of the American Mathematical Society in San Antonio, Texas, on Jan. 12. The paper will appear in the journal Real Analysis Exchange in August, 2006. MacDonald Authors Critical Cinema BookJanuary 20, 2006A Critical Cinema 5 is comprised of 14 interviews in which Scott MacDonald, visiting professor of art history, engages filmmakers in detailed discussions of their films and of the personal experiences and political and theoretical currents that have shaped their work. The interviews are arranged to express the remarkable diversity of modern independent cinema and the interactive community of filmmakers that has dedicated itself to producing forms of cinema that critique conventional media. More ... Goldberg Lectures on Chinese ArtJanuary 20, 2006Stephen J. Goldberg, associate professor of art history, delivered a public lecture titled, "Chinese Art in an Age of Mongolian Rule: The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368)" at Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, in Atlanta Georgia, on Jan. 17. He also presented a lecture titled, "The Authority of Excellence: What Can Confucius Teach Us About the Art of Chinese Painting?" as part of The Year of China 2005-2006 at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, on Jan. 18. Kodat Publishes Book Review in The Baltimore SunJanuary 19, 2006Catherine Gunther Kodat, associate professor of English and American Studies and chair of the English department, published a review of Ali Smith's novel, The Accidental, in the Baltimore Sun on January 15 titled, "An 'Accidental' tale that's difficult by design; Ali Smith's novel rewards readers who can rise to a challenge." Kodat, a former reporter for the Sun, praised the book and its author for the novel's depth and literary style saying, "A brilliant work by a major literary talent, The Accidental is not an easy read, but then the issues it addresses cannot be made easy. The Accidental is a challenging novel made for challenging times, for readers who relish a challenge. Rise to it." More ... Rubino on Classics Book Review Panel at American Philological AssociationJanuary 19, 2006Carl A. Rubino, the Edward North Professor of Classics, was in Montreal from January 5-8 for the annual meeting of the American Philological Association. As Book Review editor of the American Journal of Philology, the oldest classical journal in the U.S., he joined editors from Great Britain, Canada and Germany at a panel on "Classics Books Reviewing in the 21st Century." From there he traveled to Havana, Cuba, to participate in the Third Biennial International Seminar on the Philosophical Implications of Complexity Theory (January 10-12), where he delivered a paper titled "From Parmenides to Prigogine: Turning Points in the History of Complexity." Martin Conference Co-Chair for Association for Political Theory MeetingJanuary 18, 2006Associate Professor of Government Robert Martin was recently named conference co-chair for the annual meeting of the Association for Political Theory. Martin has served on the organization's Founding Committee and Governance Committee. He also published "Between Consensus and Conflict: Habermas, Postmodern Agonism and the Early American Public Sphere," in Polity, 37 (2005): 365-88. More ... Keller Reviews Grant Proposals With U.S. Department of EducationJanuary 16, 2006Associate Professor of History Shoshana Keller spent January 9-13 in Washington, D.C., where she served on a committee to read and approve research university grant proposals for the Department of Education. The proposals were for Title VI national resource centers in Russian/East European/Eurasian and Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) programs. Title VI funds undergraduate, graduate and professional training in the languages and cultures of major world regions. Gold Attends Annual Meeting of American Philology AssociationJanuary 16, 2006Professor of Classics Barbara Gold attended the annual meeting of the American Philology Association on Jan. 5-8 in Montreal. She presented a paper ("Institutional Pressures: The View from the Dean's Office") at a panel titled "Age-Discrimination and the Classics Job Market" sponsored by the APA Committee on Professional Matters and on the Status of Women and Minority Groups. More ... Ravven Receives Grant Totaling $500,000 From Ford FoundationJanuary 15, 2006Professor of Religious Studies Heidi Ravven has received a grant from the Ford Foundation of $350,000 for the next two years and eight months to write a book tentatively titled Searching for Ethics in a New America. More ... Adair Publishes Article in British Journal SociologyJanuary 11, 2006Vivyan Adair, the Elihu Root Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women's Studies, published an article in the British journal Sociology (December, 2005). Her article, "U.S. Working-Class/Poverty-Class Divides," was part of a special issue on "Class, Culture and Identity" and was the only piece written by an American. Adair writes as a "'poverty-class scholar' articulating an identity, experience, marginality, and concomitant consciousness and epistemology distinct from that of working-class academics." More ... Rosmaita Elected Treasurer of Society for Machines and MentalityJanuary 11, 2006Assistant Professor of Computer Science Brian Rosmaita has been re-elected treasurer of the Society for Machines and Mentality. The Society for Machines and Mentality is an international scholarly organization whose purpose is to advance philosophical understanding of issues involving artificial intelligence, philosophy, and cognitive science. The Society is affiliated with the journal Minds and Machines, published by Springer. Hamessley Publishes Article in Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and CultureJanuary 6, 2006Lydia Hamessley, associate professor of music, recently published an article in Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture (Winter, 2005). In the article, "A Resisting Performance of an Appalachian Traditional Murder Ballad: Giving Voice to 'Pretty Polly,'" Hamessley explores the way that contemporary musicians perform murder ballads, a genre that pervades southern Appalachian folk repertoire. More ... Glenn Published in Historically SpeakingJanuary 4, 2006Brian J. Glenn, visiting assistant professor of government, recently published an essay in Historically Speaking: The Bulletin of the Historical Society on Pulitzer Prize winner David Hacket Fischer's new book Liberty and Freedom. The book examines how Americans understand the concepts of liberty and freedom by studying how they are symbolically depicted over time. Glenn noted the importance of clearly defining the terms liberty and freedom, and how the book identifies struggle in the expansion of rights in America and beyond. Elgren Publishes Article in Peer ReviewJanuary 3, 2006Tim Elgren, associate professor of chemistry, published the lead "analysis" article in the winter 2006 issue of Peer Review, titled "Undergraduate Research Experiences: Synergies between Scholarship and Teaching." The theme for the winter issue is "Undergraduate Research: A Path to Engagement, Achievement, and Integration." Elgren is the recent past president of the Council on Undergraduate Research and continues to serve on its Executive Board. Trivedi Presents Paper at Conference in IndiaDecember 16, 2005Assistant Professor of History Lisa N. Trivedi traveled to Pune, India, to participate in a conference "Towards a History of Consumption in South Asia, 1750-1950," sponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and by the Indian Council of Social Science Research. She presented a paper "Health Matters: Mill Workers and Maternity Care in Bombay, 1920-1940." More ... Three Faculty Members Promoted to ProfessorDecember 13, 2005Three members of the Hamilton faculty have been promoted to the rank of professor. Associate Professor of Chemistry Karen Brewer, Associate Professor of Communication Catherine Phelan, and Associate Professor of Biology Patrick Reynolds were promoted, retroactive to July 1. More ... Meghan Dunn '06, Tim Evans '05, Professors Kirschner and Shields Publish ArticleDecember 13, 2005Meghan Dunn '06, Tim Evans '05, Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Karl Kirschner and Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields published an article in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A titled "Prediction of Accurate Anharmonic Experimental Vibrational Frequencies for Water Clusters, (H2O)n, n=2-5." More ... Woods Premieres with the Albany Symphony OrchestraDecember 13, 2005Associate Professor of Music Michael "Doc" Woods created a 'Spiritually Uplifting' tone at his premiere with the Albany Symphony Orchestra on Dec. 8 at the Canfield Casino in Saratoga Springs. For this performance, Woods had the opportunity to write a new piece titled, "Places of Light" and an arrangement of "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen," which fit with the spiritual theme of the program. More ... S. Rivera Discusses Surveying of Russia's Political ElitesDecember 9, 2005Sharon Werning Rivera's article, "Interviewing Political Elites: Lessons from Russia," has been reprinted with an afterword in Quantitative Methods in Practice: Readings from PS (CQ Press). Co-authored with Polina Kozyreva and Eduard Sarovskii of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Sociology, the article discusses sampling, interviewing techniques and questionnaire design for surveys of political elites in post-communist societies. Quantitative Methods in Practice is a reader for introductory methods courses that uses practical cases to illustrate theories and methods. Boutin Publishes Article in Ars CombinatoriaDecember 8, 2005Debra Boutin, associate professor of mathematics, recently published a research article in Ars Combinatoria, a Canadian journal of combinatorics. In the article "Isometrically Embedded Graphs," Boutin proves that every graph can be drawn in Euclidean space of some finite dimension in such a way that its symmetries are precisely displayed. Her work brings together aspects of graph theory, geometry, and abstract algebra. Keller Invited to UC Berkeley to Discuss ResearchDecember 7, 2005Associate Professor of History Shoshana Keller was invited to address the Graduate Working Group on Central Asia at the University of California, Berkeley, on December 5. She gave a seminar on her recent work and discussed the state of the field of Central Asian Studies. The seminar focused on two chapters from her 2001 book on the Soviet campaign against Islam in Central Asia. Rubino Presents Paper at Pacific Ancient and Modern Language AssociationDecember 7, 2005Carl Rubino, The Edward North Professor of Classics, presented a paper, "Rome Outside the Beltway: Gladiator and the History of 'Roman Films' in America," at the Ancient Modern Relations section of the annual meeting of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, at Pepperdine University in November. More ... Pearle Publishes Review of Adler BookDecember 7, 2005Philip Pearle, Emeritus Professor of Physics, published a review of Stephen Adler's book Quantum theory as an emergent phenomena (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004)in the journal Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 36, 716-723 (2005). Wilson Awarded NEH Fellowship for Study of Cult of Confucius in 14th-18th CenturiesDecember 6, 2005Professor of History Thomas Wilson has been awarded a fellowship by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for his study of the cult of Confucius in China from the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries. The book critically examines recent theories of sacrifice on the basis of a historical analysis of Confucian sacrifice and controversies over its practice. Confucian sacrifice entails ritual feasting of gods of the imperial pantheon, including Confucius, at elaborate ceremonies performed by the emperor and officers of the court until the early twentieth century. More ... Hamilton's Orchestra to Present "Irrational Exuberance!"December 6, 2005The Hamilton College Orchestra will perform "Irrational Exuberance!" on Thursday, Dec. 8, at 8 p.m. in Wellin Hall, Schambach Center for the Performing Arts. "Irrational Exuberance!" was composed by Hamilton Music Professor Gabriel Gould. Also on the program are Peggy Glanville-Hicks' Etruscan Concerto and Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 1 "Spring." The concert is free, open to the public and tickets are not required. Fox Speaks at "New Approaches to Vietnam" ConferenceDecember 2, 2005Diane Fox, Freeman Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian Studies, will participate in a conference titled "New Approaches to Vietnam and the West" at West Connecticut State University from Dec. 2-4. Fox will participate in the "Vietnam and the West Today" panel and speak on "Agent Orange, Vietnam and the U.S.: Stories of Trauma and Survival." More ... |
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